PAID TO SHOP ONLINE : MYSTRERY SHOPPING FOR USA

If you would like to sign-up to be a Mystery Shopper, we are currently looking for people in the New England, Washington DC, New York/ New Jersey, PA, WV, NC, and South Florida areas. QACi does service businesses all over the country, and you need to be in the database in order to be contacted.

Please fill out the on-line application and include a writing sample from a previous restaurant mystery shopping experience if you have one available. You can omit any references to specific client names. Please note any restaurant/hotel work history you may have on your application.

Become a Mystery Shopper Today

Mystery Shopping Hits

There are thousands of mystery shoppers out there but very few who can deliver the kind of accuracy and detail QACi requires for their clients. Here are some basic guidelines you should follow that will help anyone be a better shopper.

• It is very important to remain anonymous at all times. Never bring report forms on premise or do anything to identify you as a mystery shopper. At a restaurant, refrain from any talk about service, food quality, other restaurants, or any shopper talk of any kind if ANY employee is within hearing distance. Be careful of comments that can be overheard by other guests; they may be friends of the employee.

• Bring some things that help you look like non-shoppers: travel guides and cameras offer a tourist look. If you are returning to a location, wear different clothing, bring a different guest, go at a different time, and order different food and drink items. Wait staff rarely remember anyone from their looks (especially if they are moderate) , but always remember what they ordered. Do not dress or act in any way that would make you memorable. The best shoppers are totally faceless. Don’t joke with a wait person or tell stories to them. If you are to be seated with a wait you already have had before, ask to move (this table is too smoky, not smoky enough, too hot, too cold, too far from the bathroom, too close to the wall…).

• Be conscious of what you spend (as most real guests are). Asking what something costs and then adding "too much for our blood" shows you have budgetary constraints like real people. Lesser shoppers often (much too often) just order what they want, and usually the most expensive things on the menu. A trained wait person will notice this immediately and suspect someone who orders all top level items. All jobs have a posted budget that is not to be exceeded; purchase your products accordingly. There is a limit of three alcoholic drinks total for two people for any shop. **Please note that any instructions not followed (including but not limited to not holding to your budget, not ordering the items directed, ordering more than the allowed alcohol limit, submitting the report and/or the billing past the 48 hour window, fabricating information contained in the report) may invalidate your report and you may not be paid OR reimbursed for the shop**.

• Your job is to be an accurate observer. Good shoppers detail exactly what is happening to them and others around them (as if they were showing a video tape of the visit to the client). Do not offer solutions, excuses, or try to rationalize anyone’s behavior. Be factual; where you state an opinion, have facts there to back it up. Do NOT try to be funny or make incriminating blanket statements ("the floor was trashed"). Instead, describe what exactly was on the floor, how long it was there, and who finally cleaned it.

• Do not be excessively positive or negative: All yes answers and a glowing, positive narrative indicate you are not being observant enough or the staff knows who you are and what you are doing. Overly critical reports likewise show you may be looking for negatives too closely and missing positive aspects.

• Always review instructions before you go out, not at the client site. Review your role play with your guest well before you enter the client’s site. Confirm that your partner knows what is expected of them. Never, ever ask any employee "what do you recommend?" or ask for suggestions. It is their job to suggest items when you are unsure of what to get; DO NOT ever ask for a recommendation from an employee.

• You need to fill out the shopper form (on line or email document) within 48 hours of the shop. Spelling and punctuation are critical; the clients who read the reports are established corporate businessmen. Neatness counts. The best reports need little editing before they are sent out. When writing prose in the web site reports, you need to use a spell check; various browsers like Mozilla and Internet Explorer (IE) have spell check capabilities. If not, write the narrative in Word (or another word processing program), spell and grammar check it (keep everything in the same tense please), and then cut and paste into the web site fields.

• Accuracy. If you misidentify a person (claim a male had a mustache who did not) or make reference to something that is not there, or just fabricate a quote or happening, you invalidate ALL other claims made during the visit. This can cause the report to be rejected by the client or by QACi, and this has and will create a situation where you will not be paid or reimbursed and dropped from the active database of shoppers. Strive for complete accuracy in all descriptions and statements. Where employees do not wear name tags, you can often overhear a name or get a name or ID number off the check. NEVER ask an employee for their name; you may as well wear an I AM MYSTERY SHOPPER button if you do. Describe employees by race (where allowed by the client), sex, height, weight, hair color/style, dress, and approximate age.

• Always back up your answers with facts. If you mark that an employee was not in proper uniform, describe EXACTLY what they were wearing and where it differed from other employees. If you mark that a food item was not served as ordered, describe exactly how the menu described it and what you were actually served. Submit explanations with all NO answers and describe many of the important YES answers. Feel free to point out inconsistencies among staff and guests. Be sure your comments do not contradict your survey answers; for example, answering NO to Would you Return and ask for the Server? but positively answering all other questions about the server.

• QACi reports focus on the server and the service, not on the shopper and their opinions. If a client wants customer opinions, they put out comment cards. Comments from paying customers are more valued and more valid than comments from guests getting a free meal. Shopping services should provide an objective, detailed review of the server and their service style at the table (and at other tables).

• Follow the role plays exactly where provided. The role plays we use work when followed as designed; please don’t try to re-invent the wheel and put your own spin on them.

• Notice what is happening at other tables around you. Getting this information accurately to the client is as good as what happens at your table, and shows you have very good powers of observation.

• Don’t try to assume what will be important to the client and what will not be. Provide all information and let the office edit what the client gets. The more you shop a particular client, and for QACi, the more attentive to the important things you will become.

Bar Shopping Guidelines

QACi Bar shopping is broken down to three levels of shoppers and each level has a different payment and budget allowance. Please review the levels and guidelines before you accept a bar shop. There are approximately 1 out of every 20 shoppers who are detailed enough to attempt a Level 2 bar shop, and a much smaller percentage of those can go on to be higher Level 1 and 1A bar shoppers. The fun in mystery shopping is getting to a level where you can see integrity issues and document them clearly and succinctly for the client.

You should not attempt a bar shop of any kind until you have done three DR shops for QACi, understand the guidelines and editing process, and have a track record with us with an average score of at least 3.3 Previous experience doing bar shops for other companies does not count.

Level 2 Bar Shops: These are bar shops that rookie bar shoppers can take, but they need to follow a specific and detailed role play (visible in the CSI link) each and every time. The role play insures you get information (all at one time at the greeting) on the BT’s upselling, cash handling, register steps, and pouring. The reports need be written in a detailed and time organized manner (a bar sample report is usually forwarded to you before you go so you can see how they are written). A failure to follow the role play or writing manner will eliminate the shopper from any future bar shops and the shop will usually not be accepted, hence no payment will be made. Level 2 bar shop payment varies by client with a budget from $29.00 to $49.00.

Level 1 Bar Shops: These shops are available to anyone with a Level 1 or 1A rating (issued by the office staff). They also have a role play to follow but the shoppers have more leeway with their budget and they are expected to be able to “think on their feet” and order items as needed (if a regular guest is served a liquor on the rocks that looks heavy they may order the same thing to see if the pour level is the same for them as it is for the regular). Level 1 bar shoppers can get cash handling and pour info from other guests around them rather than make the sales themselves. Level 1 bar shoppers feel comfortable in bar settings, can work alone or with one other, and can write the reports clearly and in full detail (they should be able to track all items served to them, guests around them, and any group who looks very familiar with the bartender). Level 1 Bar Shoppers get paid more per shop for any listed Level 1 bar shop.

Level 1A bar shoppers are the elite; they can walk into any bar, know where to sit, understands that a bartender does to hide their misdeeds is how they give themselves away so you can catch them, detail out every transaction made to every guest at the bar (time, item served, sale amount charged) and might get the check number from the system, swipe checks off the bar if necessary to see what is on them, and be able to easily identify situations where the bartender can steal sales. 1A shoppers can do all of this while looking like they are watching TV or seemingly engrossed in conversation. Only 1A shoppers can take 1A shops and are paid a $50.00 fee if the shop is posted as 1A.